Patrick Noonan (OFM)
what I received in the seminary and what I have arrived at now has been a challenging roller-coaster ride
Fr Patrick Noonan is a Franciscan priest working in the Archdiocese of Johannesburg.
Born in Ireland,Patrick Noonan has worked in Europe, the Middle East and the townships of South Africa since 1970 (when he lived through a revolution in the neighbouring mountain kingdom of Lesotho) and was still there when his parish, the Vaal Triangle, exploded in anti-apartheid rage in the latter half of 1984.
It was this uprising that signalled the beginning of the end of apartheid and led to the release of Nelson Mandela. Irish born Noonan has made contributions to the reform of law enforcement agencies in South Africa, the national Moral Regeneration Movement and the Gauteng (Johannesburg Province) Council of Churches in the area of post-apartheid reconciliation.
He speaks the African language of his area (i.e. Sotho) fluently, with a working knowledge of Zulu. He is a priest of the international Franciscan movement since 1960 and has written many articles for church magazines and newspapers.
A member of the Franciscan Order, Noonan is the bestselling author of the recently reissued, revised and expanded book They’re Burning the Churches* (Jacana 2011), which has been read three times on South African radio
In 2016 he published St Francis Uncensored (Choice Publishing) which gives a new interpretation of the thirteenth century saint from Assisi in Italy. In 2017 he published Township God, (Write-On Publishing) a book on his life changing ministry as a priest in the ghettos of South Africa as apartheid crumbled in the 80’s.
In his 2018 book called Help! My Granny’s Dog is a Racist (Write-On Publishing) he lays bare tearful and telling tales on human reconciliations that never fail to inspire. In the process he helps the reader to recognise everyday family, school and corporate racism lurking in our hearts. Bridge building, he suggests, is for the Bold and the Beautiful. This book can be their manual of action.
His latest book is called Benedict, Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates The extraordinary story of an ex-black slave who was canonised a saint in the 16th century.
He is also the recipient of the Mayor’s Medal for Services to the Community in the Municipality of Sedibeng.
The picture shows the author with his notebooks, diaries, and some of the mementoes collected from that momentous era, which he has donated to the Teknorama Museum in Vereeniging.